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The key to a good social-media campaign is to know why you're running the campaign in the first place, says Mitch Joel, president of the marketing agency Twist Image. Only then can you begin to figure out how to actually achieve your goals, he argues. "There's a big difference between asking 'what?' and asking 'why?'" he says. "Asking 'why?' is the strategy and asking 'what?' is the tactic, so it's all about figuring out the 'why?' first."

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Migrating data to the cloud carries hidden risks that lead to permanent data loss for 40% of all companies, according to a study. A poll of more than 3,200 enterprises by Symantec found that 43% have had to recover data lost in the cloud due to issues such as server damage, faulty backup and "rogue deployment," in which data is transferred to a public file-sharing service.

A zonkey is the result of mating between a zebra and a donkey, a rare event that doesn't often produce offspring, and when it does, the hybrid animals are typically sterile. Zonkeys exhibit the traits of both a donkey and a zebra, and one California woman has been keeping a zonkey named Mona Lisa for 13 years.

It's easy to bore your social media followers if you don't understand why they chose to follow you in the first place, SmartBrief's Jesse Stanchak writes. A great social media presence manages to blend the brand's sense of purpose into every update and uses that purpose as the basis for its online connection, so that it never has to choose between being authentic and being relevant, Stanchak writes.

Marketing by e-mail only works when your audience actually wants to read the mail you send out -- and that's where social media comes in, writes Jason Falls. Instead of simply bulk-buying e-mail lists, Falls suggests, make it easier for your readers to share your content, and let new subscribers come to you. "Whether it's the 'Forward To A Friend' button or social-media sharing on sites like Twitter and Facebook, your readers will grow your list for you so long as you provide them both reason and motivation to do so," Falls writes.

Many managers err by believing they don't need to inspire or provide direction to their employees during tough times, John Baldoni writes, citing a recent survey by McKinsey and Co. "Execution without leadership is shortsighted. It will carry a company through a quarter or a year, but it will not provide a foundation for what organizations really need to do, and that is to grow."